History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

2022 Awards Eligibility

| November 30, 2022

It’s the time of year when folks start posting lists of their stories and books from the past year that are eligible for award nominations, like the Nebulas, Hugos, and more. And here are mine! Flash Fiction: “Good to the Last Drop,” The Antihumanist (January 2022). “Turning the Tide,” Daily Science Fiction (January 2022). “Promises Made,” Glittery Literary Anthology Four (February […]

Poetry in Intercity Illusions

| November 29, 2022

Intercity Illusions has relatively few poems, compared to my other collections, and what’s more, most of them were previously published. But what’s represented here includes some of my favorite poems. “Secret Gladiolus” originally appeared in the WLYA 2019 Anthology, alongside a few other pieces by me. It imagines an unusual tattoo and how it changes […]

Writer Gift Ideas: Microcosm Publishing

| November 28, 2022

If you’re looking for a great gift for a writer, I always recommend books. But specifically, check out the writing section at Microcosm Publishing. They’re a small publishing house that publishes books and zines about DIY skills, food, bicycling, gender, self-care, and social justice. Their books about writing are fantastic, including things like Jessie Kwak’s From Chaos […]

Fun for Friday: December 2022 Writing Prompts

| November 25, 2022

Believe it or not, we’re almost to December and the end of the year! I feel like time is flying by this year, though that may just be in comparison to the last couple of years, which each seemed to last about a decade. For this month’s writing prompts, I’ve collected a few different challenges […]

“The Magnificent Matter of the Mischievous Monkey” in C. & M. Marsh, Girl Detectives

| November 24, 2022

“The Magnificent Matter of the Mischievous Monkey” was technically my third Marsh sisters story, as I wrote it after The Trouble with the Tick-Tock Tabby. It’s also the title in this series I’m most likely to foul up, as it went through a few iterations before I got it to work within my self-dictated naming […]

Movie Recommendation: Cold Comfort Farm (1995)

| November 23, 2022

Yes, Cold Comfort Farm is old enough to rent a car (and then some), but I only saw it recently. Jeremy has been trying to get me to watch it for a while, but the stars finally aligned where I was in the mood for something slightly weird and slightly funny. And this fit the bill. […]

Have You Checked Out Camp Haunt?

| November 22, 2022

Sometimes, the best reviews for a book you can get are the ones that aren’t necessarily posted online. My mom reads all of my books, and she sent me a message a few days after finishing Camp Haunt. She said she really wanted to read it to see what I remembered about camp, and she […]

Stephen Fry on Form, Part 1

| November 21, 2022

As I mentioned previously, I’m working through Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled very slowly to absorb as much wisdom as I can about writing poetry. This week’s post covers Chapter 3, Section 1, on form. The first section on form introduces the idea of the stanza, including its origin, but the bulk of the chapter focuses […]

Fun for Friday: Thirty Writing Prompts

| November 18, 2022

November may be halfway over, but I recently found this list of November writing prompts and really liked what they included! You could get started on them now, save them for another month with 30 days, or just randomly choose a prompt to use (through a random number generator or just picking a favorite number) […]

“The Thing in the Swamp” in Doorways in the Gloom

| November 17, 2022

“De store gamle. Danish, again. Most people translate it as ‘the big old ones.’ It means something a little different to the old Danish families in Selbyville.” “The Thing in the Swamp” is my tangentially Lovecraftian dark contemporary fantasy story, featuring a protagonist who knows what her family has been getting up to over the […]